Something strange happened to the Eurasian continent and to Australia on this map. But that's not really relevant. Relevant is its content:

Prison Population Rates per 100,000 of the national population

1 United States of America 751
2 Russian Federation 632
3 St. Kitts and Nevis 588
4 Virgin Islands (USA) 549
5 Cuba c.531
6 Turkmenistan c.489
7 Palau 478
8 Virgin Islands (United Kingdom) 464
9 Belize 460
10 Georgia 428
11 Belarus 426
12 Bahamas 422
13 Grenada 408
14 Anguilla (United Kingdom) 401
15 Bermuda (United Kingdom) 394
16 Cayman Islands (United Kingdom) 391
17 Barbados 379
18 Kazakhstan 378
19 French Guiana/Guyane (France) 365
20...

Something strange happened to the Eurasian continent and to Australia on this map. But that's not really relevant. Relevant is its content:

Prison Population Rates per 100,000 of the national population

1 United States of America 751
2 Russian Federation 632
3 St. Kitts and Nevis 588
4 Virgin Islands (USA) 549
5 Cuba c.531
6 Turkmenistan c.489
7 Palau 478
8 Virgin Islands (United Kingdom) 464
9 Belize 460
10 Georgia 428
11 Belarus 426
12 Bahamas 422
13 Grenada 408
14 Anguilla (United Kingdom) 401
15 Bermuda (United Kingdom) 394
16 Cayman Islands (United Kingdom) 391
17 Barbados 379
18 Kazakhstan 378
19 French Guiana/Guyane (France) 365
20 American Samoa (USA) 364
20 Netherlands Antilles (Netherlands) 364
22 Puerto Rico (USA) 356
22 Suriname c.356
24 Dominica 348
24 South Africa 348
26 Panama 345
27 Maldives 343
28 Botswana 329
29 Ukraine 325
30 Aruba (Netherlands) 324
31 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 317
32 Guam (USA) 310
33 Israel 305
34 St. Lucia 303
35 Antigua and Barbuda 299
36 United Arab Emirates 288
37 Latvia 287
38 Chile 285
39 Seychelles 270
39 Trinidad and Tobago 270
41 Namibia 267
42 Singapore 263
42 Tunisia c.263
44 Guyana 260
45 Estonia 259
46 Thailand 253
47 Swaziland 247
48 Moldova (Republic of) 246
49 Mongolia 244
50 Lithuania 239
51 Taiwan 236
52 Poland 231
53 Iran 222
54 Brazil 220
55 Greenland (Denmark) 216
56 Azerbaijan 210
57 Libya 209
58 El Salvador 205
59 Jersey (United Kingdom) 198
59 Mexico 198
61 New Zealand 197
62 Gabon 196
63 Uruguay 193
64 Martinique (France) 191
65 Czech Republic 186
66 Uzbekistan 184
67 Costa Rica 181
68 Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) 178
69 Jamaica 174
69 Macau (China) 174
71 Guadeloupe (France) 173

King's College London : World Prison Brief

We all know that Australia is just a prison colony with good weather, and weird animals . The way to create a prison from which the prisoners will not run away (or swim).
The meaning of the idea of a 'Prison Colony' has changed a lot over the last few centuries.
As has the word Freedom.
It has become over qualified, to provide employment for struggling lawyers.
The dispute over the exact definition of freedom has been the mainstay of the legal industry, and the endless reconfiguration of Laws that are proclaimed to be just as they stand.
There continued admission that the law needs reform while we are obliged to obey it absolutely. Counterintuitive? .
Where people serve the law, when the l...

We all know that Australia is just a prison colony with good weather, and weird animals . The way to create a prison from which the prisoners will not run away (or swim).
The meaning of the idea of a 'Prison Colony' has changed a lot over the last few centuries.
As has the word Freedom.
It has become over qualified, to provide employment for struggling lawyers.
The dispute over the exact definition of freedom has been the mainstay of the legal industry, and the endless reconfiguration of Laws that are proclaimed to be just as they stand.
There continued admission that the law needs reform while we are obliged to obey it absolutely. Counterintuitive? .
Where people serve the law, when the law should exist for the peoples sake.
The Law serves it's self.
Free to pursue happiness, but never to catch it.

It is precisely the welfare state that has caused the crime rate among young blacks.

???

Our welfare system is far far more developed than yours. I could list ours but it would take to long. Would you accept that the Irish case disproves your wefare state notion as being the cause of your excessive prison population.

Now there must be NO CRIME now in America. All the criminals are locked up, right? If not, then locking people up does not work. This is very very simple logic so I'm sure you will have no problem understanding it, Sillysam, right?

There is one other possibility. You have being locking up the wrong people!!! Free the Blacks and lock up all those moral...

It is precisely the welfare state that has caused the crime rate among young blacks.

???

Our welfare system is far far more developed than yours. I could list ours but it would take to long. Would you accept that the Irish case disproves your wefare state notion as being the cause of your excessive prison population.

Now there must be NO CRIME now in America. All the criminals are locked up, right? If not, then locking people up does not work. This is very very simple logic so I'm sure you will have no problem understanding it, Sillysam, right?

There is one other possibility. You have being locking up the wrong people!!! Free the Blacks and lock up all those moral degenerates that lied and cheated the American people for 8 years. Then lock up the white collar crooks that stole your reputation and money. For a start anyway. Cannot be worse that present.

Indeed your welfare system is far more developed than ours. Your history and your culture is also far different than ours. Not to mention, the Irish populations is far less diverse than the US. So no. The Irish situation isn't comparable to the US situation.

Where is the logic in that. If locking up people solved crime there would have been an end to crime centuries ago. I didn't say it solved the crime problem. So stop being pedantic.

And yes, we locked up all the blacks just because we felt like it. That is the way our legal system works in America.

As for moral degenerates, our President and our Vice President are not degenerates and you, not being from America, should proba...

Indeed your welfare system is far more developed than ours. Your history and your culture is also far different than ours. Not to mention, the Irish populations is far less diverse than the US. So no. The Irish situation isn't comparable to the US situation.

Where is the logic in that. If locking up people solved crime there would have been an end to crime centuries ago. I didn't say it solved the crime problem. So stop being pedantic.

And yes, we locked up all the blacks just because we felt like it. That is the way our legal system works in America.

As for moral degenerates, our President and our Vice President are not degenerates and you, not being from America, should probably keep your criticisms to facts and not character judgments. (unless you are talking about Bill Clinton but then he is a known degenerate)

We, the American people, take care of Presidents who lie to us. We impeached Nixon and Clinton. We also lock up our white collar criminals with astonishing regularity lately. Ask, Jeffrey Skilling, Ask Ken Lay (can't he died before sentencing)

SS, someone very dear to me has done time in prison. It broke my heart. And what he was there for was barely a crime when I was his age. He was harassed by a vindictive prosecutor and virtually abandoned by a court-appointed defense lawyer.
In prison, young men learn how to survive by physical domination and gang allegiance. How, after spending, say, ten years in such a world, will they ever know how to solve problems otherwise?
Recidivism is, partly as a result, unbelievably high. Sending people to prison strips them of their job, their right to vote, much of their ability to get a job, and often they lose their families. We take people who got in some trouble, and ruin their lives, imagin...

SS, someone very dear to me has done time in prison. It broke my heart. And what he was there for was barely a crime when I was his age. He was harassed by a vindictive prosecutor and virtually abandoned by a court-appointed defense lawyer.
In prison, young men learn how to survive by physical domination and gang allegiance. How, after spending, say, ten years in such a world, will they ever know how to solve problems otherwise?
Recidivism is, partly as a result, unbelievably high. Sending people to prison strips them of their job, their right to vote, much of their ability to get a job, and often they lose their families. We take people who got in some trouble, and ruin their lives, imagining we've taught them a lesson, when in fact we've jerked them away from all the motivations they had to live straight, and left them desperate, alone, and potentially unemployable. Many are teens; and prison is a horrible place to grow up.
That is not justice. And all of us are punished, by creating a convict class. And we have about the same crime rate as Britain, but vastly higher incarceration. That's big government!
Regarding blacks, the injustice is far worse. Black men convicted of a crime are far more likely to do hard time than are white men convicted of the same crime.
It doesn't work, it isn't just, it isn't fair, it costs all of us enormously. "Tough on crime" has come to mean "doing expensive punishments that leave us worse off." But it sounds good, and it plays well in elections.

Sillysam, your ...

And yes, we locked up all the blacks just because we felt like it. That is the way our legal system works in America.

... is pure racism unless it is some twisted logic that is lost on me. The inference that your legal system works is a large jump. Obviously something in the system is rotten. Your ...

If locking up people solved crime there would have been an end to crime centuries ago. I didn't say it solved the crime problem. So stop being pedantic.

So why lock them up, if I'm not being pedantic? Who knows if there is a correct solution but the American system certainly doesn't. When will yoy know Sillysam? When 30% are imprisoned? 40%...

Sillysam, your ...

And yes, we locked up all the blacks just because we felt like it. That is the way our legal system works in America.

... is pure racism unless it is some twisted logic that is lost on me. The inference that your legal system works is a large jump. Obviously something in the system is rotten. Your ...

If locking up people solved crime there would have been an end to crime centuries ago. I didn't say it solved the crime problem. So stop being pedantic.

So why lock them up, if I'm not being pedantic? Who knows if there is a correct solution but the American system certainly doesn't. When will yoy know Sillysam? When 30% are imprisoned? 40%? 50%? You'd think after Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay etc that you might try harder on the mainland. Maybe you'd be in favour of torture and waterboarding in those prisons too, Sillysam?

Now on your xenophobia and degenerate president. Your logic is that only Americas have the right to give their honest opinion on the worst US president in the memory of man. Obviously I disagree with your opinion.

I personally have reason that quite a few other non Americans would have. Despite my clear socialist leanings I'm a capitalist in that I have funds and stocks.

GEORGE BUSH COST ME A FORTUNE. In addition to all the deaths that he is responsible for that put him firmly in the Pol Pot, Stalin and Mao category, he will be responsible for far more deaths though out the world. They in the main only murdered their own people.

His Katrina performance will be dwarfed by hi...

Now on your xenophobia and degenerate president. Your logic is that only Americas have the right to give their honest opinion on the worst US president in the memory of man. Obviously I disagree with your opinion.

I personally have reason that quite a few other non Americans would have. Despite my clear socialist leanings I'm a capitalist in that I have funds and stocks.

GEORGE BUSH COST ME A FORTUNE. In addition to all the deaths that he is responsible for that put him firmly in the Pol Pot, Stalin and Mao category, he will be responsible for far more deaths though out the world. They in the main only murdered their own people.

His Katrina performance will be dwarfed by his virtual single handed cause of world recession and all that will be the fall-out from his reign. Have you any doubts that we would not be where we are now if that bastard wasn't your president.

That you would still be defending him is a very clear indication that you are well named, Sillysam. Now march straight into the pitfalls that I've laid for you.